Instagram, like any social network, has its own TOP, where you can find the best photos or videos. Getting published in the TOP can bring you a lot of new subscribers, views, likes and comments, and absolutely free of charge. Of course, provided you have decent content. Every IG account owner strives to break into recommendations, but the social network has its own ranking algorithms.
This article will tell you what factors affect getting into the top of Instagram, how to promote a publication and how to generally understand that you are in the top.
What is TOP in Instagram and what does it mean?
Top in Instagram is a list of the best publications (photos or videos) by hashtags, geolocation. To find them, you need to click on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen.
There will be a search bar at the top, click on it and you will get to the page with the sections “best, accounts, tags and locations”. Here you can enter any tag or geo tag, they will be displayed in order of popularity. Click on a particular tag and you’ll get to the top. Above it, you can also see similar tags. The TOP consists of 9 publications with photos, videos, and storis.
There is also your TOP in the feed – when your posts are shown above the others. Videos in the TOP are triggered automatically. A photo or video can hang in the TOP for 24 hours, or even a few seconds – it all depends on the competition in your niche.
Parazight – a service for working with Instagram: delayed posting, communication in Direkta, creation of storis and analytics.
Do not confuse TOP with recommendations, they are displayed as soon as you click on the magnifying glass icon. Recommendations are more personalized than TOP and divided into categories:
Recommendations are created separately for each individual user. Previously, the TOP were mostly celebrities with millions of likes and followers. The developers of Instagram have changed the algorithm for ranking the feed and now the recommendations include content that is relevant to users’ requests.
Also, do not confuse recommendations with the general feed, which only shows those to whom you are subscribed. The general feed opens if you click on the house icon.
How to get to the top of Instagram publications and who is there
We describe the main factors for getting into the top:
- Speed of getting likes, views and comments. The faster you get feedback in the form of likes, views, and comments after you publish a post, the higher your chances of being in recommendations.
- Bookmarking. This parameter relates to engagement and also affects the ranking. The more bookmarkings you make, the better.
- The number of comments. If your publication was the subject of heated discussion, the Instagram algorithm considers it interesting and promotes it in the feed of recommended.
- Subscriptions. Accounts of the profiles you’re subscribed to often appear in the recommendations.
- Hashtags. In 2020, hashtags don’t have the same impact on rankings as they used to. But combined with all the other factors, they also yield some results. A tag you yourself once used or related to may be in the recommended ones.
- Geolocation. Geo tags also have an impact on getting to the top. Instagram often shows posts associated with a particular location.
But it’s not enough to get to the top, you need users to want to click on your post. And for that, you need to make an attractive, high-quality, juicy picture.
How to get a photo or video to the top of Instagram
So what do you need to do to get to the top with a video or photo? Let’s look at the main factors for success. These recommendations apply not only to publications, but also to the account as a whole:
Create quality content. This is the first thing to start with. Whereas in the past you could “gain popularity” by buying likes, subscriptions, and comments, now it doesn’t work. Now it’s engagement and coverage, and they can be increased only by quality content, which is interesting for subscribers. And everything is important here – the picture itself, the message you’re trying to convey and the personality of the blogger.
Post regularly. Subscribers shouldn’t forget about you. Of course, if you’re already a well-known personality or have super unique content, your account will still be visited. But in all other cases, regularity is important. Post at least two to three times a week, or better yet, every day. Treat your account like a job and keep your users’ attention.
Add geotags and hashtags. That way you can get referrals from people associated with those geotags and tags. That said, there’s no need to put up a sheet of hashtags – you could get a shadow ban for that a long time ago. Hashtags that don’t match the publication are not welcome either. Leave 3-5 relevant tags.
Do live broadcasts. They are less likely to get to the top, but if they do, you can count on a large influx of new viewers.
Post publications that you want to save as bookmarks. This useful information or just beautiful and unusual photos. Bookmarks often include all sorts of great tricks, recipes, picks, and checklists.
Motivate users. Post engaging content that encourages people to comment. Make games, draw raffles, question-and-answer posts and posts, use interactivity.
Be active in the comments. Do not be lazy to answer the comments, it affects the coverage of the post and, accordingly, the possibility to get in the top.
Interact with other bloggers. You can engage in mutual PR or order PR for money. If you are advised by a blogger whose opinion is listened to, it will increase the interest of users in your account with all that implies. You can also do a joint live show with someone.
Post when your audience is most active. Activity hours are easy to check in your business account stats. The logic is simple – you can get likes, views and comments faster during peak activity, which in turn affects your ranking.
Attract traffic from other sources. If you already have an audience on other social networks or have your own site, be sure to invite them to subscribe to you on Instagram. More people interested in you means more chances to get your publications to the top.
Be active on your subscribers’ pages. It’s not about mindless spamming and mutual activity. Build rapport. The logic is this – you communicate with subscriber on his page, drawing his attention to himself, he goes to you out of curiosity and activity is you. If you know how to leave comments that attract attention, in addition to your subscriber, your page will go to his followers. And maybe even subscribe. You can do the same on your competitors’ pages.
How do you know you’re at the top?
Method #1:
Go to see the TOP from your PC. Authorize in the web version of the application with your username and password, go to search, type in hashtag or geolocation and open the page with TOP.
The first 9 publications are the TOP. In the web version they are called “Best Publications”.
They say that the TOP is personalized. But it is not. Check is simple – copy the link and go to another browser where you can open the site in private or anonymous mode, that is, without reference to personal preferences. For example, you can open the link in TOR or Incognito mode in the browser Chrome (a combination of Ctrl + Shift + N). We see almost the same thing.
Method #2:
Look at the stats below the posts – whether there are displays by hashtags or geolocation. And in general, how much of a shot the post got. To do this, open a specific post, under it click “View stats”.There you can see the interactions, reach and source of impressions.
Or go to “Settings” – “Statistics” and look at this information there.
Conclusion
The desire to bring the publication to the top should be dictated by common sense – if it does not bring sales or bring a new audience, it is not worth wasting your time and effort on it. In practice, reaching the top on Instagram by hashtags or geolocation is one of the few ways to get free impressions and reach that should not be neglected.